Chickens at a poultry market that has been closed due in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province on Feb 17, 2014. A man from the south-western Chinese province of Sichuan has died after being infected with the H5N6 virus, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP

A man has died from the H5N6 strain of bird flu in China, a provincial government agency said, in the first known human case of the virus subtype.

The 49-year-old man had contact with sick and dead poultry before he fell ill, according to a notice on the website of the Health and Family Planning Commission of the southwest province of Sichuan, where he was from. People who had been in close contact with the man haven’t shown symptoms of sickness, and initial analysis indicated the infection was an individual case with low risk of spreading, according to the notice.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first human case of H5N6,” ProMED-mail, the online reporting system of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, said on its website.

China’s southern city of Guangzhou began a six-month trial campaign this week to reduce the spread of bird flu by ending the sale of live poultry in some districts.